I’ve seen burnout walk through my door wearing many different faces. The exhausted nurse who can’t remember why she chose healthcare. The tech worker staring blankly at his laptop, feeling nothing. The small business owner who hasn’t taken a day off in three years.
Here on Vancouver Island, burnout affects professionals across all industries, from our bustling healthcare facilities to remote work setups. As a counsellor in Nanaimo offering both in-person and online sessions, I’ve developed approaches that combine traditional counselling with energy healing practices to address burnout at both psychological and energetic levels.
What Really Happens During Burnout?
Burnout is more than just feeling tired after a long week. It’s a state where chronic workplace stress has essentially overwhelmed your body’s ability to cope. The World Health Organization recognizes burnout as having three distinct components:
● Emotional exhaustion: That “running on empty” feeling where you have nothing left to give
● Cynicism or detachment: Developing negative attitudes about your work or clients ● Reduced sense of accomplishment: Feeling like nothing you do makes a difference
What makes burnout particularly dangerous is how it creeps up gradually. Like the proverbial frog in slowly heating water, many professionals don’t recognize the severity of their condition until they’re in crisis.
Burnout Across Industries: It’s Not Just Healthcare
While we often associate burnout with healthcare workers, the reality is that it affects professionals across nearly every sector:
Healthcare Workers
Nurses, doctors, and care aides face relentless demands, staffing shortages, and emotional tolls from patient suffering. On Vancouver Island, our healthcare professionals often work with limited resources while serving widespread communities.
Warning signs include: Dreading going to work, emotional numbness with patients, making uncharacteristic mistakes
Tech Industry Professionals
With the rise of remote work, many tech workers on Vancouver Island experience blurred boundaries between work and home, leading to never truly “switching off.”
Warning signs include: Difficulty concentrating, declining work quality, increased cynicism about projects
Small Business Owners
Vancouver Island’s economy relies heavily on small businesses, whose owners often work unsustainable hours while carrying full responsibility for success or failure.
Warning signs include: Inability to delegate, working seven days a week, neglecting personal health
Educators
Teachers and educational support staff face increasing demands with limited resources, especially after adapting to pandemic-related challenges.
Warning signs include: Sunday night anxiety, emotional exhaustion, reduced patience with students
Hospitality and Tourism Workers
A key industry on Vancouver Island, hospitality workers often face seasonal stress, difficult customers, and financial uncertainty.
Warning signs include: Increased irritability with customers, physical exhaustion, feeling undervalued
First Responders
Firefighters, police officers, and paramedics regularly confront traumatic situations that take a psychological toll.
Warning signs include: Emotional numbness, sleep disturbances, hypervigilance even when off-duty
Social Workers and Counsellors
Those in helping professions can experience vicarious trauma and compassion fatigue from supporting others through crisis.
Warning signs include: Bringing client worries home, difficulty maintaining boundaries, decreased empathy
My Integrative Approach to Burnout Recovery
At Bee Here Counselling in Nanaimo, I take a whole-person approach to burnout, recognizing that recovery involves both psychological healing and energy rebalancing.
Traditional Counselling Approaches
1. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) Together, we identify thought patterns driving overwork, perfectionism, or inability to set boundaries. By challenging thoughts like “I’m the only one who can handle this” or “I’ll be seen as weak if I ask for help,” we create space for healthier workplace behaviors.
2. Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Learning to be present rather than ruminating about work helps break the cycle of stress. Simple mindfulness practices can be incorporated into even the busiest workday to create moments of calm.
3. Narrative Therapy By exploring your workplace story and professional identity, we can reconnect you with your original purpose and passion, separate from the conditions causing burnout.
Reiki and Energy Healing for Burnout
As a unique element of my practice, I offer Reiki as a complementary approach to counselling for burnout recovery. Many clients find that combining talk therapy with energy healing provides more comprehensive relief.
How Reiki Helps with Burnout:
● Restores energetic balance: Burnout creates energy depletion and blockages that Reiki helps to clear
● Promotes deep relaxation: Activates the parasympathetic nervous system, countering the stress response
● Supports emotional processing: Helps release stored emotions that may be difficult to access through talk therapy alone
● Enhances body awareness: Reconnects you with physical sensations that burnout often numbs
During an integrated session, we might begin with counselling to address specific workplace challenges, then transition to Reiki to support deeper relaxation and energetic release. Clients often report feeling both mentally clearer and physically lighter after these combined sessions.
Creating a Sustainable Recovery Plan
Recovery from burnout isn’t about quick fixes—it’s about sustainable change. Together, we’ll create a personalized plan that might include:
Boundary Setting:
Identifying where your professional boundaries need strengthening and practicing specific language to maintain them
Energy Management:
Recognizing your personal energy patterns and scheduling work around your natural rhythms
Meaningful Disconnection:
Creating deliberate breaks from work devices and notifications Values Clarification: Reconnecting with what truly matters to you professionally and personally
Self-Compassion Practices:
Developing kinder self-talk to counter the harsh inner critic that often accompanies burnout
Organizational Approaches to Prevent Burnout
While individual healing is essential, I also work with organizations across Vancouver Island to implement preventative strategies:
● Workplace wellness workshops focusing on stress management
● Consultation on creating healthier workplace cultures
● Training for managers on recognizing and addressing burnout in teams ● Support for implementing realistic workload management
Beginning Your Recovery Journey
If you recognize yourself or a colleague in this description of burnout, know that recovery is possible. At Bee Here Counselling, I offer both in-person sessions in Nanaimo and online counselling throughout Vancouver Island.
Recovery from burnout isn’t just about getting back to work—it’s about rediscovering joy and meaning in your professional life while creating balance that sustains your wellbeing.
About Melissa: As a Registered Clinical Counsellor at Bee Here Counselling and Therapy in Nanaimo, I integrate traditional counselling approaches with energy healing practices including Reiki. I offer both in-person and online sessions for individuals across Vancouver Island who are seeking relief from workplace stress and burnout.
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